As you know, the world did not end on Dec. 21. So to celebrate, here is a look back at the highlights on the bar scene and a glimpse of what will follow in 2013.

Uptown

Even before it can open, food bloggers have been hyping Loring Cafe, on 37 Grand Ave., right around the corner from Plum. Loring's website identifies its location as West Oakland, but I'm pretty sure the geography is Uptown.

Flora on Telegraph Avenue and 19th Street sprouted an offshoot bar, called, of course, Fauna. Duende, a restaurant, bar, cafe and bodega with live music, is still being assembled next door, but on the 19th Street side.

A few blocks up Telegraph Avenue, near Cafe Van Kleef and Somar, crews are still working on the bar that will be called Feezy. There are plans to turn 1802 Telegraph Ave. into the Diving Dog Brewhouse.

But wait, more beer: Layover's husband-and-wife owners Tim Martinez and Christi Vaughn are converting a 5,000-square-foot office building monstrosity and 6,000-square-foot parking lot at 2040 Telegraph Ave. into the Lost and Found Beer Garden.

Mama Buzz Cafe, the embodiment of the original spirit of Art Murmur, became a beer garden and cafe called Telegraph, which serves homemade sausages made on the spot every morning by former Mua and Nex chef John Mardikian.

Advertisement

Speaking of Art Murmur, it scarcely resembles its DIY roots and the accompanying First Friday finally stopped pretending to be anything but a festival, which now fills Telegraph Avenue between 16th and 25th streets on the first Friday of each month.

Somewhere on the border of Uptown and Oakland's downtown, the New Parkway finally opened just days before Christmas but years later than anyone ever expected, after the original shut down in 2009. The reincarnation is located on 474 24th St. and has a decent lineup that started Friday, including "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Looper." But the spirit of oddball second-run shows lives on with "Barbarella."

And the Starline Social Club, 2232 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, deserves an honor for the most dramatic makeover in Oakland of the year, probably the decade. You have to see it.

But closer to downtown, Chop Bar's Chris Pastena is close to launching the Tribune Tavern on the ground floor of the Tribune Tower in March.

Jack London Square

The Night Light Lounge opened in March near Jack London Square, replacing the rundown bar at 311 Broadway, the scene of an April 25, 2011, shooting rampage.

Miss Pearl's restaurant (originally known as Miss Pearl's Jam House) in Jack London Square will close in January and reopen in February as an Italian restaurant called Lungomare.

West Oakland

Alan Lucchesi wants to expand his Soundwave Studios on Wood and 20th streets into a nightclub and performance venue where all the musicians rehearsing and recording next door at the studio could play.

Old Oakland

B Restaurant and Bar on Ninth and Washington streets made way for the Borgo Italia trattoria. Across the street, Levende East became District.

On the other corner, Rosamunde Sausage Grill will replace the Japanese restaurant farther up the block on Washington, nicely accentuating the transformation set in motion by the Cosecha Mexican Cafe in Swan's Market in 2011.

Lake Merritt and thereabouts

The Halftime Sports Bar opened in September at 316 14th St.

The Monkey Forest Road deserves a prize for the transformation of a dilapidated bank at 3265 Grand Ave. into a Balinese furniture gallery and cafe.

Across the street, the wildly successful Boot and Shoe Service expanded into the old Cafe Di Bartolo.

Destino, the newest venture by restaurateur Gary Rizzo, opened on upper Grand Avenue, reviving the Latin flavor of the previous tenant, La Taza de Cafe.